“The problem is not China’s inability, but its lack of will”, explains an IFRI researcher

“The problem is not China’s inability, but its lack of will”, said Marc Julienne on France Inter on Sunday February 26. The China specialist at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) returned to the geopolitics of Beijing, which has just made “proposals for peace” in Ukraine and Emmanuel Macron announced a trip to China in early April.

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“China objectively has all the levers to pressure and discuss with Moscow and kyiv, but it has not used themexplains the researcher. This is why Emmanuel Macron and others are trying to engage China in the role of mediator.. Marc Julienne recalls that China has, since the start of the conflict, a “constant official discourse of neutrality, which promotes peace talks, ceasefires”. “It’s one thing to say it, you have to do it”he observes.

China has an interest in staying out of the conflict.”

According to the China specialist at IFRI, Beijing still has an interest “to stay out of the conflict, because it has a lot to lose and the economic interests are not so high”. Despite its position of neutrality, the Chinese “use the lexical field of friendship with Russia a lot, they try to display a close partnership to show unity against the bloc of Western democracies and the United States” who remain their “first rival”.

The United States recently expressed concern about possible arms shipments from China to Russia. “That would seem contradictory to China’s position from the start,” notes Marc Julienne, who recalls that this is information given by the United States, which “blow hot and cold”. “If China starts to support Russia, we change the paradigm”he adds, but that would cause “sanctions from the United States and the international community, and it would be serious for them”.